1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns an adjustable fixing device of a safety belt anchoring point along a support element of the vehicle body and of an emergency release of the safety belt, permitting at least two positions for the anchoring point.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The principle of retaining the passenger of a vehicle in case of a front end collision with the help of a diagonal belt or shoulder belt and a stop placed under the side board and forming a catch for the knees is well known and will not be described in detail here. Such a system can easily be made passive (i.e., the retaining device is put into place automatically on the passenger without any action on his part) by hooking the outside point of anchoring the shoulder belt on the frame of the door. Thus, the shoulder belt is released by itself with the opening of the door, permitting the passenger to get out, and also placing itself on the passenger with the closing of the door.
There exist different possibilities of mounting a passive shoulder belt. However, the upper outside anchoring on the door always exists and can either serve the purpose of directly fastening the shoulder belt ending in a metal clamp in case the retracting device of the belt is placed at the center of the vehicle between the seats, or serve the purpose of fastening a return belt in case the retracting device is placed in the door in accordance with known arrangements.
It is also known to provide an adjustable fixing device of safety shoulder belts for motor cars comprising, next to each seat, on the one hand, a vertical strut of rectangular sectional sheet metal fixed on the internal partition of the vehicle body and having a series of openings arranged in rows on its smaller side turned towards the front of the car, and in which the top of the openings is larger than the bottom, and being associated with the upper buckle of the shoulder strap, on which is carried a spike whose end is thickened and which can be fully pushed into the wide part of one of the openings of the vertical strut and then pushed downward in such a way that the thin part is placed into the less wide part of the opening, whose rims then prevent the thickened part of the spike from leaving the strut.